T-Mobile and International Use with iPhone-your settings?

I don't have an iPhone and no longer have T-Mobile, but one thing you should check is whether your phones are locked. They often are when you get some sort of special deal through your cellular provider. If the phones are locked and will still be locked at the time of your trip, I don't think you will be able to use European SIMs--which I realize you don't plan to do, but your friend mentioned it.

Hi pastel, we have the T-Mobile magenta plan and it really does “just work”! We’ve done several trips - Europe, Antarctica, Patagonia, and Iceland. We went to a T-Mobile store before we left and they explained everything. As soon as we landed in a country, we received a text welcoming us and providing the details of what was covered. It worked great, no surprises.

Same as Donna for us. We’ve had TMobile for 7 yrs and love it. They really are the best for International travel. We both just got iPhone 15s too. We do not make calls when out of the country, too expensive, but for everything else we use our phones exactly as we do here, without having to do anything, and only pay our normal monthly charge, not a penny more.

OP, don’t worry about all those details and settings. Text as you normally would at home. Just don’t pick up calls if you don’t want extra charges.

I use T-Mobile too.

Is it necessary/recommended to get the extra $50 upgrade for more
data?

If your data suddenly slows to a crawl then you need to find wifi and go to TMOBILE and upgrade to the extent necessary to finish your trip. I watch a lot of Netflix so I generally have to.

There is an important setting you have make for your IPhone to work overseas. Go to Settings->Cellular->Cellular Data Options, and make sure Data Roaming is turned on. If it’s turned off your phone won’t connect to the local carrier.

Hi all, while I am grateful and I do appreciate your posts of comfort, may I refer you to this excellent thread by Stephen Gilbert from 10/12/2023, who ran into some issues while overseas? Here is his post, emphasis in bold is mine:

T-mobile and a month in Europe

My wife and I are currently on a one month trip in Europe. We are using T-Mobile, as we have for years. This year however it’s the first time that we ran out of fast data. Two weeks into our trip. I got a text from T-Mobile saying that I had used up four of my 5 GB of data, and that my data would be throttled when the 5 GB was used up.
My wife got a similar message after three weeks. In both cases, we waited until we had used all of our included data, before buying a 10 day 5 GB add-on pass.
When our data was throttled, we could still text, but most of the Internet was unusable. We had to wait until we got to Wi-Fi to even use the T-Mobile app to increase our data. Email, maps, and Google search, did not really work at all with the reduced speed.
Looking at my data usage records on my iPhone, I see that about 2 GB have been used for Google Maps, about one and a half gigabytes used for Chrome (Web browsing), about a gigabyte used for Google photos, and everything else less than a gigabyte. Looking at my wife’s phone I see that she has used about a gigabyte and a half for Instagram, and about a gigabyte for solitaire, which I didn’t even realize used data.

End of SG’s post.

I would prefer to avoid this scenario, or other avoidable technology glitches (those under my control, anyway) while touring, if possible.

Acraven, you are absolutely right- our phones are locked to the carrier, so I wouldn’t be able to get a SIM while overseas. Thanks for that!

Thanks Michael, will do! I wouldn’t have thought of that.

Donna, Susan, Muriel and Mr E, do you use your phone for map apps whole navigating around? Do you use podcasts or access web based audio tours while at museums? It seems that’s more common now, that your content is accessible prior to your trip, either to download or tap into while on the go.

I’ve had T-Mobile Magenta (or earlier versions) fort about 10 years with multiple Asia, Oceania, and European trips annually.

The first time I encountered any warning about usage was earlier this year while in Japan. I had been using Apple Maps and sending texts with pictures extensively throughout the day. I received the usage warning noted above.

I was able to stay under the 5 G usage limit by saving my text and picture sends until end of day and using the hotel WIFI. Finished the three week trip with 5G data to spare.

OP, other than above, never a problem connecting or using including in your countries. I always receive a “Welcome to Countryname” message while on the tarmac or soon thereafter.

OP, I just saw the museum guide question.

I use the guides with my phone. Earbuds or AirPods are helpful to have along.

I use Google translate with the camera frequently in Asia. Reads Japanese and Korean easily!

Apple Maps fir walking or when I’ve had a car for GPS. Last car trip was Germany. No problems.

In short, works like home for me.

Hi, Pastelholic, glad you like T-Mobile!

First, as the others have all said, it does "just work." Honestly. Earlier this year, I landed at AMS for a layover and received a test from T-mobile saying "Welcome to the Netherlands"! Same thing when I landed in Glasgow - a welcome text from T-Mobile. And in both cases, I was able to use my phone just like normal.

With regards to the data limit, T-Mobile gives you 5GB of high-speed data and unlimited texting. Once you reach 4G of data, you will receive a text from T-Mobile warning you that you are approaching a data limit. That happened to me in Scotland after 18 or 19 days (I was there for 21 days). So for about 2 days, I was able to use the internet but my data speed was lower. Quite frankly, I was surprised at how much I could access. The only thing that happened for me was that the map was slower to appear when I was getting directions on Google maps.

That could vary depending on the country. Scotland has excellent cell phone service and I always had a great coverage no matter where I was (even out on the water). BUT I'm mentioning this because I am a data hog. I use it a lot and used it consistently when I was driving all over Scotland for 16 days, as I used Google maps for my GPS device. So your usage may be less.

Several things you can do is to use wifi whenever possible, and download as much as possible when you can. If you're really worried about using cellular data, you can put your iPhone in Airplane mode to rely on wifi. There is a LOT of public wifi in Europe and all you have to do is search for it.

Lastly, keep in mind that T-Mobile will reset your data back to 5G of high speed data at the end of your billing cycle. So before you go, note when your billing cycle starts and when it will reset. You might want make some adjustments at home to lessen data usage so that you have more data for the trip.

ORD Trav and Mardee,
Thanks for those helpful tips!
We do have earbuds and ear pods, though I’m not up to speed on the pods and need to practice….😁

My AirPods tend to fail or run out of charge unexpectedly all too often. So, I may look “old school”, but I prefer the buds!

T Mobile is owned by the German telephone company, and it's dominant in the European cell phone service.

Our cellphone works there just like it does in the U.S.

We kept getting phone calls from a 4 year old granddaughter in Budapest. She was using autodial on her mother's cellphone. She had no idea it was 3:00 a.m. where we were.

You should be able to avoid a lot of data usage by backing up and texting photos only over Wi-Fi and downloading your city maps via Wi-Fi for offline use. My photos average about 3.6 MB each, so backing them up via cellular data would really run up my usage; about 1400 of my photos would burn through a 5GB data allotment.

My preferred mapping resource (Google's MyMaps--different from regular Google Maps) doesn't allow storage of maps offline, so it constantly hits the web for fresh mapping data as I walk around a city, and I think it contributes a lot to my usage of around 1 GB per week; I never stream video via cellular data. I have most of my apps set so they don't use cellular data, but when I'm sitting on an intercity bus or a train, I'm likely to be web surfing.

And I learned the hard way that if you are out of the US "too long" TMobile will cut off your data service when you return to the US.

There is a consideration that I think is not addressed here. Everyones cellular usage will depend not just on what apps you are using (google maps, podcasts) but also what your phone is doing in the background that you are not even aware of (email, news apps). It depends on how your situation and how each person has their apps set. Go to >settings>cellular and scroll down to the list of apps that use cellular. Not only will you see what is turned on but sorted by how much data has been used. This will give you an idea of your own person usage hogs.

1. Go to Settings>Privacy>Location services. What settings have you accepted when you installed the apps? If they are all set for "always" you will be using more data constantly in the background than if set to "while using." Personally, I only have my apps set for "while using" or "never". Apple is the only app that always knows were I am and that is only for the safety purposes of sharing location with family.

2. Check your email app. Do you have background app refresh on? It will be downloading email anytime you are on cellular or wifi. If you don't get many emails this might not matter. If you are someone who gets dozens of emails a day, whether work, spam, every online retailer, or 30 facebook/instagram/pinterest notifications a day, then all of those emails may be eating into your data. At home many of these emails tend to come early so they are ready to bombard you when you wake up. So at home you are on wifi, but in europe they will be coming in during daytime hours when you are more likely on cellular data. Turn off background app refresh and open your email app when you have wifi or really need it. These days with so many online tickets as attachments that may require opening email or prepare ahead and download them so you don't need to open your email. I don't find I need to turn off my email, but I am very big on unsubscribing, stopping notifications, etc so as not to have too much to deal with in my inbox. Get a new email provider with a good spam filter if you need. The legacy providers (earthlink, yahoo) are awful about allowing spam that icloud and gmail screen out.

3. Notifications will use data, turn off any you don't need. News and weather apps are especially big on this.
   News apps are notorious data hogs in order to give you the newest news feed. Don't get me started on APnews and NYTimes apps!

4. Maybe only use wifi for downloading photos to the cloud. Get in the habit every night at your hotel.

Finally, prior to a big trip is a great time to spend an hour or two on your phone cleaning it up. Delete apps you no longer need. Check location sharing, Turn off cellular you don't need. Check your privacy settings, etc.

Syd, this is news I can use for sure! Thanks for the comprehensive answer, it’s really what I need. We all have little things to clean up on our phones. Since all my content from the old iPhone transferred over, as did my settings, I haven’t gone through and checked my settings, and I will get on that asap.

Mr E and acraven and ORD Trav, I really appreciate the follow ups. Mardee, good point about watching data usage.

Anyone/Everyone else, thanks for your input.

Any other tech thoughts to help me with overseas phone setup are helpful.

I ordered tickets to the Dutch Resistance Museum and they are on the Tiqets app, but my confirmation code is in an email. I could take a screen shot and file it.

We made a Google spreadsheet accessible from our devices, that’s available offline to list our plans and reservation times. The ticket confirmation codes should go in that spreadsheet, I would think…if that’s secure enough….?

Thank you all so much!

Since all my content from the old iPhone transferred over, as did my settings, I haven’t gone through and checked my settings, and I >will get on that asap
Last summer was our first big trip post pandemic and that is when it really hit me how much of a mess I had, since I hadn't really paid attention to my phone apps and settings during the 3 years of the pandemic.

Some of the tickets I purchased online this summer had an option to add to Apple Wallet (rijksmsuem?) which IMHO is the best option if available. The others all had barcodes or QR codes that the ticket takers would scan. I downloaded the PDF attachments to my phone. If you open the attachment and use the box with the up arrow at the top, you will see a row of contacts then a row of apps, then a list of options. One is "save to Files" which will also backup to icloud. Open "Files" and if you see the cloud icon with the down arrow then click that to keep a copy on your phone. If you use gmail you will also have the double triangle with a plus that will put it in google drive. Here you can click the ... and there will be an option to make available offline. I don't think downloading uses a lot of data, but I just feel more comfortable having a copy of all tickets on my phone in case I have a problem with internet. I wouldn't want to rely on just a confirmation code, not sure how that would work if it required looking up. Just realized you said google spreadsheet. Then you are using google drive already?

I ordered tickets to the Dutch Resistance Museum and they are on the Tiqets app, but my confirmation code is in an email. I could take a screen shot and file it.

I use Gmail and anytime an email comes that is related to my trip, I attach a label I created specifically for that trip. Then to find it later, you just click on the label. You can find more info at this link.

Also, I don't know if you've read Pam's excellent thread on trip research, but there are lots of ideas in here for organizing research, bookings and so on. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/how-do-you-organize-your-trip-research

Regarding iMessages. Simple text based messages really don't use up much data. It’s when you start adding pics and especially videos that data usage may become problematic. So if you need to message a traveling companion while out and about don’t hesitate to do so. Save sending pics and video to family and friends for when you are on WiFi

Have a fun trip!

Mardee and Syd,
Great suggestions! I had forgotten, the tickets for DRM are already in my Apple wallet 😁! But it’s a good practice to have them in several places.

Also reminded me to set up a labeled file in Gmail for Europe trip 2024. In that will be my hotel reservation communications and tickets.

We also like Sheets because it works with our desktop and our devices. The spreadsheet has our daily plans by date and place and we have different columns for things like restaurants(with addresses).

Rocket,
Do you use iMessage? Do you turn that off when overseas? Though if it doesn’t take much data I guess it’s not a big thing to concern myself about…

Yes, photos and videos will wait to upload, backup or share once we have free WiFi, that is the plan….This is only our overseas second trip with a smartphone. I’m somewhat concerned about its security. I will hold it tightly and secure it when it seems necessary….

Thanks all! Your tips are so great.

Mardee, I started reading Pam’s excellent thread that you cited, and your helpful response to it. I will take more time to do that, it’s really helpful. Thanks much!

And I learned the hard way that if you are out of the US "too long" TMobile will cut off your data service when you return to the US.

But from everything I've heard, all it takes is a quick phone call to T-Mobile USA to get your data service re-instated upon your return to the U.S. It doesn't sound like a big deal.

Furthermore, if you use the T-Mobile app and have WiFi connection, you probably could get your data service reinstated by using their internal app message system.

If the phone doesn't 'just work' when you pull it off airplane mode (Welcome to ________ should appear as a notification), then the on/off switch should jiggle it.

Skunklet, do you turn off iMessage while you are overseas?

Thanks Muriel, that’s good to know. I do use the T-Mobile app and I will be sure to look there for help if needed.

Hi, we’ve had T-Mobile since it was Voicestream before it became T-Mobile. Through many trips to Europe, these are things I do with my iPhone now:

Text as regular practice.

Phone calls are when I’m back to the hotel on wifi which I use FaceTime. Many times I connect in FaceTime on my iPad instead of the phone - easier to see faces.

Before the trip, I go through my photos on my phone and clear out any I don’t need. Most everything else is stored in iCloud photos folders.

I am very picky about apps. Anything I don’t need, I clear out. And check settings for anything you’re keeping to make sure anything is not on auto-refresh, etc.

Any tickets or reservations have a screenshot photo. I store those in iCloud Photos per city for the upcoming trip. Then, as I take photos of the city, those are loaded in my hotel room into that iCloud folder. I review them most nights to delete anything taken that day that’s not wanted.

I don’t default to turning on my map while walking. I have a 1-page map printed for each city that I refer to when needed. It lessens my chance of losing my phone, plus not tripping while walking! ; ).

Hey Jean,
Thanks for weighing in, great help! Are you the same Jean who packs ultralight? I’m a fan. When you said:

Text as regular practice

Did you mean-iMessage (blue text) or, toggle off imessage (green text)?

We will definitely want to text there, but the T-Mobile salesman/technician said we should toggle off iMessage. When we tried that at home, we were not able to text at all. Might have to call T-Mobile for clarification….

FaceTime is possible but my Mom’s caregivers use WhatsApp, so I’m probably going to need to do that, but at the hotel and only if necessary. Not sure if we will bring our iPads. Mine is very old and the battery is dying, but my husband’s iPad is in better shape.

I like your app housekeeping-I’m also going through and deleting some. Good reminder to keep going on that. Using Syd’s great advice, I have toggled off background app refresh on most apps. Also don’t want those using cellular data to refresh.

I also go over my photos each day and delete. I like the idea of setting up city folders. I can do that in iPhoto and Google photo. I used to way until I got home and used the desktop, but why not do it now?

Totally agree with this:

I don’t default to turning on my map while walking. I have a 1-page map printed for each city that I refer to when needed. It lessens my chance of losing my phone, plus not tripping while walking! ; ).

I also don’t like the feeling of looking helpless or lost while in a strange place. We pocket the map after checking our navigation and stop someplace out of the way to confirm if we get confused. In Holland we will have to make sure we stay out of the bike lanes while doing that!

Having our phones out for Google maps would maybe happen if we were confirming details in a safe place. Or accessing an audio tour we can’t download from home or the hotel internet is down?

Thanks again!

Hi, yes, I’m the ultralight packer. It certainly helped when I was traveling all month in June! And next year I have a month trip in the planning stage, so hopefully I can drop even another pound. And just in time for January, I realized if I drop 12 pounds off of my body, then my entire last year’s packed backpack is free! ; )

So getting back to T-Mobile, we don’t toggle off anything to send texts in Europe. It’s exactly as if we’re sending one in the US.

Thanks Jean! That is helpful.
May I email you privately regarding packing questions?

Yes I use iMessage when overseas. My thoughts around the data it uses is from my usage at home. I’m mostly on WiFi at home so I have a skinny data bundle. I like to check to see what I’m using that consumes data. That’s how I concluded that text based iMessages do not use much data. You can play around with it to check for yourself.

Go to settings >> cellular. >> system services. A list will show up with one being messaging services. I reset my stats to coincide with my billing month.

Hey Rocket,
Thanks for the instructions to check usage. The most usage was messages with 68.4. Is that a lot? Up ‘til now, I haven’t paid much attention to usage, since I was on a Verizon unlimited plan. It will matter a lot when I’m overseas. Sharing images with friends is great but I don’t want to post on social media. I can email instead using WiFi when overseas.

I will definitely be calling customer service at T-Mobile to better understand how they tally usage, especially as regards iMessage.

I have used .82 out of 100 allotted and there are 13 days left on the billing cycle. Maybe I had forgotten to toggle off cellular data and use WiFi.

Sharing images with friends is great but I don’t want to post on social media. I can email instead using WiFi when overseas.

Keep in mind that you can do the above without worrying about data if you wait till you're in your hotel room and share your photos using wifi. Just save everything till then and you should be fine. :)

Thanks Mardee! I will try to do most of that in the hotel.

Sometimes the answers I receive bring up great ideas like this adapter to connect wired earbuds with 3.5mm jack to my new phone with USB-C port.

Do you bring extra sets of ear buds since they are so small and light? I’m thinking yes.

I appreciate everyone’s thoughts, which I have input into a Google doc titled “phone tips for Europe trip.”

Certainly, Pastelholic, you’re welcome to IM me.

I arrived in Belgium yesterday and I immediately received a message from TMobile welcoming me to Belgium. I’m not having any problem with my data or text messages and so far I haven’t needed to make a call. If I do it will be $0.25 per minute. I have had TMobile for years and this is one of the reasons.

Jean-thanks-I’m gathering my thoughts…

Woohoo Andrea! Have a wonderful time, if you have frites, have some for me!

Hi! Just found this forum! Switched from Verizon to T Mobile. Other than making sure my iPhone is on Data Roaming is there any other settings that need to be changed? I’m in the US and phone is fine. But my daughter is already over seas and can’t get her phone to work. It’s only working on Wi-Fi. Can’t figure out what the issues could be.

Burnskim, welcome!
I’m no expert, but your daughter’s issues may have to do with her plan? Maybe call T-Mobile customer service because they are informative and helpful. You might also want to try going to a T-Mobile store and see if the staff can help.

Thanks! We are on the same exact plan.

Go5G Plus is the plan. Pretty sure that should be covered anywhere.

Problem resolved! Thank you and what a fantastic forum. Issue was in settings - daughter is old school and remember from being a kid I would always say “turn off roaming”!!! Well once turned on it’s fixed!!! Going to book mark this! Great info. And thank you again!!!

I highly recommend Android Phones as it has a better interface and Antennas .

I have used T-Mobile in Europe for the last 10 yrs and love it.

My added suggestion is if you are not familiar with iPhone wallet get someone to help you and practice. Our last two RS trips I rarely had to get out a CC. Now I am practicing using my Apple Watch and wallet app so I don’t need to reach for anything.
Enjoy Europe.